With his stubby cigar, rumpled trench coat and greasy hair, Lt. Columbo, never mind his funky odor, was perhaps the most indelible TV character of his era.
From 1971-1978, Columbo was part of a rotating group of mystery shows that aired on NBC. It was must-see TV decades before the phrase was invented.
The formula rarely varied, and it had no need to: Each episode began with a villain, usually someone urbane well-to-do, who methodically would conduct the “perfect murder,” careful to cleverly cover their tracks in imaginative ways.
But, of course, there is no “perfect,” and our eccentric detective always found a way to bring down the bad guy/gal. By the way, the villains were often famous performers who were playing against type. Here’s a list that includes everyone from Johnny Cash to Dick Van Dyke.
Sometimes Columbo (the great Peter Falk) wouldn’t even show up until the second act of the TV movies (they ran 90 minutes, as I recall). But once he made an entrance, it was time to watch him reverse engineer the crime of the week in the most entertaining way.
It’s weird when you stop to do the math- Falk was only in his early to mid-50s during the shows run (later ABC bought it and ran it periodically as specials between 1989 and 2003.) I myself was only in grade school, but already a rabid fan who still loves a good mystery to this day.
Although Falk famously lived on Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills, I would occasionally see him the lobby of The Regency hotel in New York. Some folks live there, like Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, for example, and Falk was said to keep his east coast residence there. It’s shocking that he was not recognized more often, but I guess being “out of uniform” helped a lot. But folks who did say hello were always greeted kindly by him.
So, I stumbled upon a website that plays all the episodes of Columbo – crystal clear, no commercials – episode numbers and notes are included. I couldn’t believe my luck! The website is https://archive.org/ and you can get lost for hours looking around at what’s available. If you want to go straight to the Columbo shows, they can be found at: Columbo: All Episodes
I feel like a kid again. Falk lived from 1937 to 2011, but his character might just live on forever. Sometimes the Internet turns up a treat.